On the road again.....the ease of meal planning

I just finished my breakfast at my friends house a few hours south from where we live and I was satisfied with not only the meal, but with how easy it was for me to plan out our meals for the weekend while at our friends house. It's funny how I have been struggling with meal planning at home on a day to day basis being that last year it seemed to be simple enough to do. It took me, at most, 5 minutes to write down in my planner easy snacks and breakfast, lunch, and dinner options for 3 days. Let me share what I brought with us:

Cooked quinoa
Trail mix bags I put together (almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, goji berries, raisins)
Sliced zucchini and red pepper
Apples
Hummus
precooked chicken
Organic plain, unhomogenized yogurt
Carrot muffins I baked
Rice milk
Hemp Granola
Multigrain tortilla chips
Juice

I packed the trail mix in little snack bags at the beginning of the week and set them aside. Then the morning before we left I cooked the quinoa as we had breakfast, sliced the veggies and mixed up the muffin batter before I walked my son to the bus stop and then baked the muffins as he was in school and in between packing up our stuff.

With just a little time spent planning at the top of the week, I had 3 days of fun options for the kids and myself, and we can spend our time having fun and enjoying the company of our friends instead of worrying about what to eat and if we can eat it or not. As it is not just me with food sensitives, but my kids as well, I wanted to make sure that my options were better than the tasty temptations we may encounter, but also simple to prepare. It also took up very little room and that is always a good thing when you are bringing food that needs to be refrigerated (and the fact that we were packed into the back seat of the car).

I have given myself a little peace of mind that one of our fundamental needs are met and not left in the control of those that may not know how best to meet that need. It's all up to me.